The funny thing about planning a wedding and being a blogger is you want to share everything and talk about your DIYing and all the amazing things you’ve made, designed or created, but as a bride, you want to keep all these ideas private so they’re a surprise for your guests.

Because of this I have decided to schedule a load of Post Wedding blog posts which share all the things I have been doing for my (and friends) weddings.

I’m actually writing this post in September 2016 but will schedule it for late June 2017 a few days after the wedding.

Hold on you might be thinking…. You’re not getting married till next month and you’re correct! This first post is for bestfriend B, the new Mrs Baker. I will be sharing the favours which we made for their wedding which was on 10 June.

Being a bridesmaid is a wonderful thing and I loved helping B make these beautiful favours and place names. I first wrote about this here, but what I didn’t mention in the post was that The Oyster Shed was actually the reception venue for the new Mr & Mrs Baker.

Because of this, and actually it was my mum’s suggestions, we made candles from oyster shells for the favours and used the unsuitable ones as place names (and idea I spotted on Pinterest)

The Oyster Shed kindly kept a load of oyster shells for B to use for this little DIY project… We hysterically carried them home in a big black sack in a slightly drunken state on a balmy night in August last year and chuckled how Becca was like a tipsy oyster santa…. Something we found highly amusing at the time!

Now… Let’s talk how we did it… Candles first.

I should mention first that the Oyster Shed, in addition to collecting the shells, also cleaned and baked them in the oven to remove the little connective thing that attaches the shell to the oyster. This meant when we collected the shells they were ready to go and nice and clean.

If you’re thinking about trying to make some I’d recommend doing the same… No one likes a stinky fishy candle!

Once you have your nice clean shells lay them down and sort out which ones lay flat with a good depth (ie none that have a really low side)

Once you’ve sorted the usable shells from the non usable ones it’s time to get your candle making game going…

Now being an artist I own a batik pot which we used for the activity, If you don’t have one though I recommend visiting this site. It’s where I bought the scents, wicks and bases from. They have everything you’d need and were fast with their delivery too!

We used paraffin wax which despite the name, actually contains no paraffin. It’s made from a bi-product of the oil refining industry – a bi-product that would otherwise be thrown away, which is good but also because I read that paraffin wax is excellent a taking scents and is the ideal choice for most candle making purposes, especially for beginners. yay!

So a big old bag of paraffin wax nuggets came with me to london. I also ordered 10m of wick and some bases…. again all from this site.

I cleaned the batik pot and added the fresh wax and once it had melted added some concentrated scents, Bec wanted clean fresh smells so I bought ‘fresh laundry’ and ‘cut grass’… which were both light and not to stuff/heavy.

At the point Becca and Edwards house smelt amazing.

we popped the bases into the flattest part of the shell and pressed down lightly so the metal moulded to the bottom of the shell. We then threaded the wick through and trimmed with a cm or 2 to spare.

We constructed a tiny ladle from a tea spoon and slowly and carefully poured the hot wax in around the wick which was held upright for a few seconds until the wax began to cool and set a bit. For the first few I’d suggest working together as one can hold the wick upright whist the other is spooning the wax in! Teamwork! We still had to trim the wicks down when this photo was take but you get the general idea!

Once done and set they looked beautiful and I know the guests are going to love them! Such a lovely memento of a special day.

Not wanting to be wasteful and because we knew they’d look beautiful, I used all the empty non flat shells for the place names. I got this pen and just wrote the names on in a delicate script. I think they look great don’t you?

So there you go… My first post wedding post in this new series! (It’s exciting I get to continue the wedding talk after the big day(s) Hooray!